St Joseph’s Primary School

80 Palace Denman NSW 2328

Phone: 02 6547 2496

Email: admin@denman.catholic.edu.au

Newsletter Term 1 Week 5 24th February 2020

MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY

24/2

Back up date for Regional Swimming

Carnival

Regional Cricket Trials at Scone 9am

25/2

Leadership Assembly 9am

Shrove Tuesday

Pancakes for sale at recess

26/2

Ash Wednesday Mass 12pm

27/2

DIO Swimming Carnival

Life Education

28/2

Gymnastics for Sport K-6

Clean Up Australia

Day

Volunteer Induction 2pm

2/3 3/3 4/3 5/3

Catholic School Week Celebrations 9am Liturgy in Hall,

reading with parents & shared picnic

morning tea

6/3

Gymnastics for Sport K-6

Regional Rugby League Trials at Muswellbrook

11 & 12 yrs

9/3 10/3 11/3 12/3

DIO Cricket

13/3

Gymnastics for Sport K-6

16/3 17/3 18/3 19/3 20/3

What’s On at SJD

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK

A community inspired by Christ, striving for excellence

From The Principal, Mrs Helen Whale…….

Well we are fast approaching the half way mark for the term. Isn’t it amazing how time flies when we are

having fun!!

Reflections on our school term so far...

The 2020 school year has begun in a most positive and supportive manner.

The students have returned to school ready to learn

Our new teachers have been welcomed whole heartedly by the existing staff and parents and they

are settling in extremely well

Student presentation in terms of uniforms and manners has shown great improvement and pride in

self and school

The P&F have shown great support for the school and initiative in organising fun-raising as well as

fundraising activities

The parent numbers at the Parent Information Evening have improved on last year’s attendance

Pathways sports have seen school representatives compete at soccer, netball, rugby league,

swimming with cricket and touch still to come.

Two dance groups have started up catering for kids keen on dance in the infants years and primary

years

The environmental group has started its veggie garden project

Our potential school leaders have been learning what leadership is all about

Some parents have discussed issues with teachers and principal in a respectful and constructive way

so that solutions for moving forward were reached.

The teachers have worked on the new school positive behaviour policy and handed it back to be

ratified by parent representatives and student leaders.

Parents wanted

To meet and discuss the proposed new positive behaviour policy

To volunteer at our working bee to restore the play equipment to its former glory

(Volunteer Induction needed)

To participate in our first volunteer induction session if you have not already participated in a

session before. Don’t forget to bring your Working with Children check number along with 100 pts

of identification including either a birth certificate or passport.

The next Volunteer Induction Session will be held this Friday 28th February at 2pm.

Mrs Robyn Lasker

After 25 years of good and faithful service to St Joseph’s Denman, Mrs Robyn Lasker is retiring to enjoy other aspects of her life. Mrs Lasker has worked with many children during her time as a valuable learning support assistant and forged wonderful relationships with her students. We thank Mrs Lasker for her dedication to our students & our school and wish her all the best in her retirement.

REC, Miss Natalie Walters……

Sunday Gospel

Jesus said,

‘You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and

hate your enemy’. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for

those who persecute you’. (Matthew 5: 43 – 44)

Questions of the Week

Adults - What is the point of ‘turning the other cheek’ in an argument, and why is it so hard to do? Young People - How in your family, school, or community could you break a cycle of violence, revenge, or greed? Children - When have you or someone you know insisted on having the last word’ in an argument? What happened afterwards?

Shrove Tuesday Tuesday 25th March is Shrove Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday is the day before Lent begins and is seen as the

last chance to prepare for the beginning of Lent. It is a day of feasting before fasting begins. It is

traditional to eat pancakes on this day. Mini Vinnies will be selling pancakes at recess time to raise

money for CARITAS.

Ash Wednesday The following day, Wednesday 26th March, is Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is when we begin a 40

day journey through Lent towards the light of Easter. At Mass on Ash Wednesday we are marked with

ashes on our forehead. This is a symbol of being sorry for the things we have done wrong.

Lent is really about love – we remember that Jesus loved us so much that he came to forgive our sins

and show us how to love. We journey from the victory of last year’s Palm Sunday to the regret of ashes

from the burnt palms. It is a journey that is necessary for each of us. The love of God is poured upon us

during the Lenten season as we come to a deepening awareness of our real need for mercy and for-

giveness. Through this season we look at our brokenness while also adding the space in our lives for the

love of God to be our light and guide.

A Mass for Ash Wednesday will be held at St Bernard’s Church

on Wednesday 26th February at 12pm. Parents, grandparents

and friends are welcome to join us.

Project Compassion Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the annual Caritas Australia Project Compassion Appeal. Dona-tions to Project Compassion allow Caritas Australia, to work with local communities around the world to alleviate poverty, hunger, oppression and injustice.

Each family will receive a Project Compassion box for their donations.

From the Assistant Principal, Mrs Michelle Lovegrove…….. Wellbeing Survey

Dear Parents of Year 4, 5 and 6 students, To be able to obtain data on the effectiveness of Visible Wellbeing and other programs supported by Where There’s A Will at our school, we require as many students in Year 4, 5 and 6 to participate in the Wellbeing Survey. Information regarding this survey went home with your child last week. A reminder that the survey is anonymous, no personal details are collected, and all information output is de-identified and broadly reported on. Please complete the permission form and return to school as soon as possible. Thank you to the parents who have already completed this permission for their child/ren. In the Visible Wellbeing SEARCH framework the ‘A’ is for Attention and Awareness.

Attention is our ability to focus, either on inner aspects of self, such as emotions and physical

sensations, or on external stimuli for example the teacher’s lesson in a classroom.

Awareness refers to the ability to pay attention to a stimulus as it occurs.

Wellbeing is improved when individuals are aware of, and can consciously direct, their attention.

One practice that St Joseph’s has adopted to improve attention and awareness is mindfulness. This occurs in all classrooms at least three times a week. Here is a reminder of the benefits of mindfulness:     Research shows that mindfulness training increases connectivity in the frontal lobe of the brain,

which is linked to improved attention, memory processing and decision making abilities. Mindfulness training involves tuning in to internal and external experiences with curiosity resulting

in increased self-awareness, social awareness, and self-confidence.  Mindfulness training increases children’s ability to self-regulate their emotions, especially difficult

emotions such as fear and anger, through breathing and other grounding techniques.  Mindfulness has been shown to improve empathy or the ability to understand what another

person is thinking or feeling, which improves children’s awareness of others and helps them to build positive relationships. 

(kidsmatter.edu.au)   

Last week I listed a number of apps which can be downloaded and used to guide emotional regulation, mindfulness and meditation. These include:  Smiling Mind  Headspace   Stop, Breathe and Think – Kids  Breathe  Calm 

Awards for week 4

Congratulations to all of our award recipients, keep up the good work!

From the Assistant Principal, Mrs Michelle Lovegrove…….. continued What can you do at home? Mindful dinnertime: Create a time for your family to appreciate and savour their food at the

start of a meal by spending the first few minutes of dinner in silence, just eating and enjoying the food. It’s a surprisingly nice activity to do with the whole family, and done regularly, can become a lovely ritual. 

  Mindful teeth brushing: Getting kids to brush their teeth can be a challenge, so why not make it

a challenge, by inviting them to try to do it mindfully with you? Invite them to pay attention to the feel of the brush in their mouth and the sensation and taste of the toothpaste. Ask them three things they noticed that was different about their brushing tonight than from the previous night.  

                                                                                                                  (kidsmatter.edu.au)

If you have any questions regarding wellbeing at SJD please do not hesitate to ask. Enjoy the week! Michelle

Kinder Jack Newton for always using his strength of kindness to look out for his class mates.

Jesse Ochoumare for improvement in learning to write his name and recognise rhyming

words.

Year 1 Oscar Mepham for his strength of love of learning in Maths. Sam Brewer for an amazing focus on improving his handwriting.

Year 2 Beau Johnson for using his strength of curiosity within our math number talks.

Archer Peek for his insightful ideas in his Religion task.

Year 3 Jesse Neville for taking pride in his work resulting in neat handwriting.

Samantha Brammer for always trying her best & participating in class discussions.

Year 4 Charlotte Head for a marvellous personal response to a text. Sophie Janssen for always sharing her interesting answers with the class.

Year 5/6 Caoimhe Bray for her sportsmanship she displayed at the swimming carnival.

Cianan O'Connor always working hard and trying his best in all area.

Principal Alani Moon for helping the Kinder children so patiently.

Franky Evans for keeping our environment very clean.

Caoimhe Bray for wonderful sportsmanship as told by 2 other competing schools.

Sports News

Sport Trials

In the last newsletter there was information regarding the Regional Sport

Trials. We had 4 students trial for sports last week & are very proud to

announce that Scarlet & Sophie were successful in gaining selection to the

Upper Hunter team for DIO netball & Caoimhe for DIO soccer.

Congratulations girls on your sporting success & well done to Lutherking

for your participation.

Further sporting trials are still planned in the coming weeks.

Cricket – Friday 28th February (postponed from Monday) venue tbc

Rugby League (11’s & Opens) – Friday 6th March at Muswellbrook 9:30am

Touch Football – Thursday 19th March at Singleton at 9.30am

Gymnastics for Sport

Our Gymnastics program commenced last week & was enjoyed by all.

For the remainder of the sessions all students from K-6 will be completing

the Gymnastic session on a Friday.

Please ensure that all students wear their sport uniform on Fridays for

the following dates:

28th February (Week 5)

6th March (Week 6)

13th March (Week 7)

3rd April (Week 10)

Diocesan Swimming

Congratulations to the 22 students who represented our school at last week’s Regional Swimming

Carnival at Scone. We are excited to announce that 12 of our swimmers have been successful in gaining

selection to attend the Dio Swimming Carrnival at Lambton Pool this Thursday. Good luck to Harry,

Emmitt, Henri, Will, Scarlet, Danielle, Ivy H, Claudia, George, Ivy R, Archie & Stella, swim fast & represent

our school & region with fantastic sportsmanship.

Alumni

Class of 2013—Anastasia Leaver

Ana graduated from SJD in 2013. She completed her HSC in 2019. Ana received a Premier’s all-round achiever award for scoring over 90 in all her subjects and an Alexander award for coming 13th in the state in Ancient History. In 2020 Ana will be studying Arts Law at Sydney Uni.

All the best with your studies Ana.

Year 4

It has been a busy five weeks for Year Four. We have settled into our new routines and are eager to learn

more. Every morning we do a maths warm up. We are working our way through our time tables and we

are very speedy at them now. We love writing answers on our whiteboards as we can

fix our mistakes easily and write down our answers quickly. Here are some photos of

us working hard.

In year four we love our flexible seating arrangements and working with

our friends. We can choose our seating for group work and love to read

on the bean bags or being outside. Here are some photos of us helping each other

learn new things.

During our English lessons we have been working on our complex sentences. This is where we get to

challenge ourselves to see how many connectives, adjectives, adverbs and WOW words we can include

in one interesting sentence. We also enjoyed our ‘book tasting’ where we got to sample different types

of texts and see if we liked the way they were portrayed.

CANTEEN IS EVERY

FRIDAY

ORDERS ARE DUE

BY 3PM EACH

WEDNESDAY

From the P & F……

Lots of things happening with the P & F in term 1, still some vacancies on rosters that will need to be

filled, especially Cattle Sales. Please contact Lillian Hagan on 0417 777 553 if you can spare some time

once a month on a Friday to serve some hungry farmers.

There are 2 P & F events in March which is a great opportunity to come together as a community.

Sunday 8th March is the Playground Working Bee & Saturday 21st March the adults only Trivia Night.

Notes have been distributed for both events & RSVP’s are essential. If you need a new note please see

Virginia in the office for a replacement.

We look forward to seeing lots of new faces at either or both of our events, we are a friendly like minded

group of parents just trying to do our bit for our wonderful school & we welcome everyone to join in.

Uniform Shop will be

open every Friday

8.45am to 9.15am

School Banking

is every Tuesday

Term 1 Canteen 2020

Date Name

14th February Anna Falvey

21st February Anna Falvey

28th February Lillian Hagan

6th March Monique Jones

13th March Jo Ryder

20th March Anita Kirby

27th March Kimberly Vincin

3rd April Megan Anderson

Cattle Sales 2020

Date Serve Slice Slice

24th January Lillian Hagan

21st February Rose Stocks Nikki Feeney Kimberley Vincin

20th March Shilo Peek Kimberley Vincin

17th April Paul Thompson Amanda Thompson Monique Jones

22nd May Nikki Feeney Monique Jones

19th June Nikki Feeney Shilo Peek

24th July Paul Thompson Amanda Thompson Monique Jones

21st August Shilo Peek Monique Jones

18th September Shilo Peek Monique Jones

23rd October Kimberley Vincin Monique Jones

20th November Paul Thompson Kimberley Vincin Shilo Peek

18th December Kimberley Vincin Shilo Peek

Meals on Wheels 2020

Date Names

15th January Lillian Hagan

19th February Lillian Hagan

18th March Kim Bray and Julie Neville

15th April S/H

20th May Mrs Whale and students

17th June Kim Bray and Julie Neville

15th July S/H Ben and Lillian Hagan

19th August Mrs Whale and students

16th September Mrs Whale and students

21st October Mrs Whale and students

18th November Kim Bray and Julie Neville

16th December